House Dems: Stunned about CIA

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said today they were stunned to learn that the CIA misled Congress for nearly a decade – and that they had little choice but to go public after CIA Director Leon Panetta ignored their concerns for weeks.

Yet Republicans on the Intelligence panel continue to dismiss the allegations, accusing the Democrats of providing political cover for accusations from Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the CIA had lied to Congress about waterboarding.

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“It seemed to us that we weren’t getting the response to the letter that it deserved,” Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) told POLITICO. “We didn’t release the letter to the press. We sent it to Director Panetta. After weeks of no response and no action, what were we going to do?”

Holt was one of seven intelligence committee Democrats who, in a letter released Wednesday night, said that "top CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled" members of Congress since 2001.

These Democrats did not inform Pelosi that they were releasing the letter, and Pelosi said Thursday morning Pelosi said she had no knowledge of the letter until last night.

In the letter, Democrats demanded that Panetta correct a statement he issued on May 15 - just after Pelosi accused the CIA of misleading her during the Bush years about the agency's use of waterboarding techniques - stating that it is not the CIA's "policy or practice to mislead Congress."

Sources said today that the letter was going to be released anyways but that committee members wanted to give Panetta a “courtesy period” to respond.

Democrats refused to say today what exactly Panetta told the members during the June meeting, citing the need to keep sensitive intelligence information classified. But committee members said they were appalled to learn from Panetta that the CIA had been misled them over the span of last eight years.

“How can this be that information was concealed from members of Congress?” asked Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), one of the signers of the letter. “This is extraordinary. I don’t know if this has happened in our nation’s history.”

While the letter offers a measure of vindication for Pelosi, it also threatens to renew a wave of distracting headlines for the speaker about what and when she knew about the CIA’s use of waterboarding.

But Democrats said today that Pelosi did not have any prior knowledge that the letter would be released.

“It’s not really about [Pelosi],” said Holt. “It’s about the American people getting the information they need and deserve.”